The Owl and The Frog

by ChampionElCid

AU: What if instead of going to her regular school Luz Noceda attended St. James School? What if she were to meet and become friends with a group of girls there? What if that group of girls proceeded to have adventures together not just in the human world, but across other worlds as well? Crossover of Owl House and Amphibia. Have now changed the rating to Teen

50. Chapter 49: Two Worlds, Two Families

So first things first I have some more shout-outs!

First another shout-out to Cartoonkatzenjammer who brought Sheresade to life in another excellent drawing! You can view the image on my DA page, she did an amazing job and I'm happy to have her create another OC character for me. Check out her Youtube Channel and show her some love!

My second shout-out is to DA user, Cartoonking1 he made two amazing pieces inspired by my fic, they are both short Luzanne stories and both are really sweet! They have both an image and a short story to them, I have them favorited in my "Owl and the Frog Fan-art" collection so please check them out if you haven't already. Thank you Cartoonking1! I appreciate you making these and wish you well in your creative endeavors!

Now here we are… this chapter has been something I've been planning for a long time. Once I got the idea for having Andrias capture witches from the Demon Realm I came up with what I thought was a great idea. I've been waiting a long time to finally reveal this and I honestly can't wait to see your reactions to it. I already have plans for what will happen in the future with these witches and I hope you like what I have planned.

So here we go, let's see if I impressed you….

Chapter 49: Two Worlds, Two Families

---

Scientific Study

"Subject one from world number 0527, also known as "The Demon Realm," Odalys Light spoke into a small recording device as she stood over the witch that was strapped to the table. The witch was restrained but growled back at her.

"Cloakbot's observation has informed us that this species is capable of using magic innately through the use of an organ identified as a "bile sac" attached to the heart," continued Odalys.

"Subject displays average level intelligence, though not clear the exact level of thinking ability," said Alister joining his wife in the recording.

"How about you untie me and I'll show you exactly what my thinking ability is?!" declared the witch defiantly.

"No I don't think we will," said Alister, "but if you are able to communicate with us, perhaps it would make the following exercise easier. Now how about you tell us how exactly you use magic?"

The witch remained silent.

"If you aren't going to make our job easier then please don't bother interrupting us," said Odalys to the witch.

"Shall we continue calling you subject one or do you have a name?" asked Alister.

The witch thought for a second before replying, "I'm called Raine. Raine Whispers."

"Raine, such a lovely name," said Odalys in a mocking tone. "Of course, not as grand as mine." She went to the witch's left arm and lifted it up, observing a symbol just under the wrist.

"This mark? What is it?" What purpose does it serve?" asked Odalys

At first, the witch was silent, though eventually they spoke, "It's my coven brand. It marks me as a member of the bard coven."

"What purpose do these covens serve?" asked Alister.

Again, Raine paused, though they did speak, "The covens are the right way to do magic, at least according to our emperor."

"You are ruled by an emperor?!" said Odalys. "What is this emperor like?"

"No one really knows," said Raine, "he always wears a mask and has never revealed his face in public. He took the throne about fifty years ago and that was when he instituted the coven system. Once you are bound to a coven you are restricted to only being able to use that Coven's magic. The mark seals you off from performing other types of magic."

Odalys and Alister wrote down what the witch said.

"Most interesting," said Alister, "a casual observation seems to suggest that this method is enforced in order to prevent witches from becoming too powerful. Why do so many agree to this?"

"There are consequences to not joining a coven," said Raine, "if you don't join one, you are labeled a wild witch and hunted down by the emperor's forces. If you're caught, you're either forcibly put into a coven or, in the worst cases, you are petrified, turned to stone forever."

Again, Odalys and Alister wrote down what the witch said.

"Then there is no cure for petrification in your world?" asked Odalys.

"No, there isn't," said Raine flatly. The two newts wrote this down.

"We observed these coven marks on you and the other adult species that we captured, yet the child doesn't have one," said Alister.

"That would mean that she is unrestricted in the types of magic she can perform yes?" asked Odalys.

Raine nodded their head.

"Good, Andrias will be pleased to know that," said Alister.

"Now for the main question of the day," began Odalys, "How exactly do you perform magic?"

"I need my hand free in order to show you," said the witch. Alister and Odalys looked at each other.

"Before we agree to untie you, I'd like to remind you of the consequences of defiance," said Alister, he nodded to his wife, who pressed a button on a remote she was holding, and a small jolt of electricity went through Raine's body.

"Ahhh! Hey! There was no need for that!" said Raine.

"Yes, there was," said Alister coldly, "that was a mild shock, nothing too damaging, I can make it more painful, and I will if you attempt to escape when I untie your hand. Do you understand?"

The witch nodded their head, and Alister untied their hand. Raine brought up their hand and made a red circle with it, Alister and Odalys watched, intrigued. Out of the spell circle, a cluster of red musical notes came out. They danced in the air before resting and began to play a soft sweet melody.

"Fascinating!" said Alister as he looked up at the notes and listened to the melody.

"This doesn't look that impressive to me," scowled Odalys. "What is that song supposed to be doing?" Though as she said, this her eyes began to feel heavy. The witch didn't answer.

Alister let out a yawn, "Why do I suddenly feel tired?" he asked. Though a second later, he realized the answer and made his way over to the witch, trying to restrain them. The witch fought back with their free arm as Alister struggled to overcome the sleepiness in his form. Odalys had snapped out of her stupor and turned a knob on her remote, increasing the intensity of the shock collar. She quickly pressed the button, sending a wave of pain throughout Raine's body. Raine tried to continue their defiance, but the pain became too much and they finally stopped resisting. The red musical notes disappeared in a puff of smoke and Alister tied the witch back up.

"Alright, I'm sorry, please stop hurting me!" begged Raine. Odalys took her finger off the button and the electricity stopped. Odalys came up to the witch and slapped them hard in the face.

"We warned you!" she yelled, "but now since you've elected to do things the hard way, then I suppose we will too!" She went over to a tray that had some sharp scary looking devices on them. She pulled out a syringe, an evil smile on her face.

"I wish I could say this won't hurt," said Alister with a sinister smile, "but I'd be lying."

"Now let's extract some of that magical bile and see how it works," said Odalys, as she aimed the syringe at the witch's heart. Odalys plunged the syringe right into Raine's bile sac, making the witch let out a loud agonized scream!

---

A Check-up

"Thanks so much for coming over, Mrs. Noceda," said Anne as Camila walked through the door, "I was worried that we wouldn't be able to make it to Domino's appointment, but it is more convenient when the vet comes to you."

"Well I'm actually not just here for Domino," said Camila, "I also thought I'd take a look at the Plantars if you'll permit me, and if they're fine with it."

"Oh, really, I mean sure I guess," said Anne.

"Mom's been wanting to have a look at them for a while now," said Luz as she came in after her mother, "Amara is here too. Mom wanted to know just how similar they are to regular frogs."

"Oh, this could be interesting," said Anne, "Can't wait to see what the result is."

Camila and Oum looked at each other.

"Actually, Anne, you won't be here," said her mother. "You have an appointment with the dentist."

"Ah but mom…" protested Anne.

"No buts," said her mother holding up her hand.

"Ah man, that's rough," said Luz, "good luck with that."

"Eh-hum," said Camila making a noise, "you'll be joining her, Luz. I scheduled you an appointment at the same time."

"Wait, what?!" exclaimed Luz in surprise, Oum put her hand on Luz's shoulder smiling.

"Since you and Anne will be going together, you can think of it like a…. couples activity," said Oum.

Anne and Luz looked at each other, both thinking how "couples activities" did not usually involve a trip to the dentist.

"Uh, can we get a couple's pedicure together first?" asked Anne nervously.

"After… maybe," said Oum in a strict voice, "Now come, on you two. We're going to be late." She grabbed Anne and Luz by the collar and began leading them to her car outside.

"But mom," begged Anne, "my teeth only hurt a little bit." Oum didn't listen and heaved Anne and Luz into the car before driving off.

"Hey, Domino," said Camila to the cat, "how are we feeling today?"

Domino meowed in response.

"Well, let's make sure it stays that way then," said Camila taking out her device and looking into Domino's eyes. It didn't take long to give Domino her checkup. For the most part, the cat looked good.

"Domino seems to be doing okay," said Camila as she finished her examination, "I'd like to do a blood test though, just to make sure everything is alright inside."

The cat seemed to understand this as it suddenly became very tense. Camila stroked Domino, trying to get her to calm down. She called the Plantars over.

"Hey, can you guys give me a hand here?" she asked.

"Sure, what's up?" said Hop-Pop.

"I just need you guys to hold onto the cat and make sure she doesn't move," instructed Camila, "I need to get a blood sample from her."

Sprig and Hop-Pop appeared on either side of Domino and held onto her. Camila continued to stroke the cat as she got her needle ready. As soon as it saw the needle, Domino hissed at it and tried to get off the table, but Camila and the Plantars held onto her.

"I promise this will be quick," said Camila, "come on, Domino, don't make this difficult."

Domino hissed again.

---

"Well, that could have gone better," said Sprig as he put another bandage on Hop-Pop.

"Well, we got the blood sample at least," said Camila, putting a bandage on herself where the cat had scratched her.

"Is it always that painful?" asked Hop-Pop in a weary voice, looking at all the scratches on his body.

"Cats have different temperaments," said Camilla, "but they are usually a lot harder to deal with than dogs. Though some dogs can be difficult too. Luckily, I have plenty of bandages." she handed another one to Sprig, who put it on himself.

"So, uh, are you going to need a blood sample from us?" asked Hop-Pop, getting nervous.

"Um, we can skip that for now if you want," said Camila. "For now, let's just have a look at you and see how you work. Oh, and I also have those x-rays I took of you when you came to my office, so we can look at those too."

Camila used various medical devices to give each of the Plantars a checkup. She looked into their eyes, ears, and mouths wanting to understand them more. Eventually, she took out the X-rays and showed them to the Plantars.

"So you're saying this is what is inside of us?" said Hop-Pop, looking at the x-ray.

"Yes," said Camila, "X-ray technology lets me see inside your body without having to cut you open."

The Plantars all flinched at hearing that.

"I mean, I wouldn't do that without anesthesia," said Camila, "that way, you wouldn't feel anything." Camila turned back to the X-rays looking at them carefully.

"From what I can tell, your anatomy is very similar to that of frogs from this world," said Camila to the Plantars, "you have many of the same organs that humans have: lungs, heart, liver, intestines. The only big difference I see between you and regular frogs is a stronger more pronounced spinal column, and more vertebrate. Both of those make sense as you walk upright rather than crouched like a normal frog."

"Not really sure what any of that means," said Sprig.

"Ah, right," said Camila, "well basically, the three of you have more bones, mainly in the back, compared to an Earth frog."

"Ohhh," said all the Plantars at once. Camila turned back to the X-rays, "Aside from that, you have all the typical organs that Earth frogs have, and I assume they work in the same way."

"So you really don't need to dissect us to see how we work?" asked Amara

"Oh heavens no," replied Camila, "that crazy scientist who attacked you is all wrong about how to learn things. Dissection can be a useful tool…"

The Plantars and Amara tensed up at hearing Camila say that, she noticed their expressions and quickly added.

"But dissection should never be performed on a live subject, much less a sapient one," she said, trying to calm them down. "There's a whole lot more I can learn about you as a species just by talking with you. Observation is a much better tool. Although speaking of that crazy scientist, let's have a look at your tail and hand, Amara."

Amara lay down on her stomach and presented her stump to Camila, Camila took off the old bandage and was amazed to see how quickly the new tail was growing. Amara brought up her arm and Camila could see that the new arm was almost fully formed. Her hand was also coming along well, it was tiny and not yet grown but the basic shape was there, at the ends of her new hand were small nubs that would grow into fingers.

"Wow, you already have a new tail coming in," said Camila, "the scars are gone and there's no blood. Your arm and hand look great too. I think a few more days and it should be ready to go."

"I told you, you didn't need to fuss over me," said Amara.

"Yes, but I'm also a mother, and I felt the need to be motherly," said Camila. Amara smiled at that.

"Gotta admit that's pretty cool, Amara," said Sprig, "sure wish frogs could do that."

"Well, we are with a frog expert here," said Polly, " surely she knows. So yeah can frogs regrow limbs or perhaps even grow extra limbs? Could there be like an uber frog?"

"Ha, no, sorry, frogs can't regenerate lost limbs, or grow extra ones, Polly," said Camila.

"Aww, dangit. why do newts get all the cool abilities?" said Polly.

"Hey, you guys can jump a lot better than we can," countered Amara.

"Well, it looks like you're mostly all healed," said Camila, looking carefully at Amara's tail, "I guess all we have to do is wait for your tail to grow back to full size."

"I suppose it will be easier for me to hide it, seeing how short it is," said Amara.

"As for you," said Camila turning to Hop-Pop, "you're pretty spry for a frog approaching seventy. Especially since earth frogs tend to only live for about twenty years at most in the wild."

"You got any medication that can make me look forty years younger?" asked Hop-Pop.

"I wouldn't want to prescribe you anything without knowing how it might affect you, Hop-Pop," said Camila, "I say be happy about the fact that you're so old."

"Oh, I have a question," began Sprig, "Do you know the highest a frog has ever jumped? And does it seem beatable?"

"Well, frogs are more known for the length of their jumps than height," replied Camila, "most frogs can jump between ten and twenty times their body length. Have you ever measured your jumps, Sprig?"

"Huh, now that you mention it, I haven't," said Sprig. Camila came over to Sprig, putting her hand on him.

"I bet if you practiced, you could jump pretty far," she said in an encouraging voice, causing Sprig to smile at her.

At that moment, the front door opened. Anne, Luz, and Oum had returned. Oum walked over to Camila.

"Four cavities each, and a whole bunch of cricket legs," she said to Camila, "they both still a bit out of it."

The Plantars and Amara looked over at Anne and Luz, both of whom had weird expressions on their faces and were walking very slowly.

"Hey, Anne," said Sprig, coming up to her, "Luz's mom finished examining Domino…"

"Domino," said Anne, still out of it, she reached forward and grabbed Sprig, pulling him close to her face and talking directly into his, "Sprig, you know that Domino is not just a cat, right? She is the alpha and omega–an inter-dimensional being across all of time and space."

"Whoa, Anne! That's like… some zen stuff right there," said Luz herself.

"Oh well, that's nice," said Sprig. As this was happening, Luz came over to Anne and grabbed her, looking into her face.

"Anne, Anne, Anne, can you imagine what would happen if our souls fused together? We would become one single entity that would transcend across all known levels of reality!"

"Whoa!" said Anne, "that would be amazing!"

---

New World, Old Friend

"Okay then, subject four, are you ready to proceed?" asked Odalys.

The young witch didn't say anything in response and simply glared at her.

"Come now, let's not do this the hard way," said Alister, "And in case you've forgotten, we've outfitted you with an electric collar. It's there to keep you from doing any magic we don't want you to, but we could also use it as motivation if you so desire."

The witch glared at the newt for a few seconds before speaking, "What is it you want me to do?"

"We want to see you do magic," said Odalys, "Nothing fancy, just some basic spells, and remember, no trying to escape, are we clear on that?" Odalys held up a remote, putting her finger on the button for emphasis.

The witch nodded and brought her hand up, creating a small spell circle. As she did, a small orb of light appeared in her hand. Odalys and Alister took notes.

"We know from the examination that you have an organ called a bile sac attached to your heart," began Odalys, "this organ is what allows you to perform magic, yes?"

The witch nodded her head.

"Good, now this circle you made, is that required as well?" asked Odalys.

"Yes, we call it a spell circle," explained the witch, "you use your finger or hand to make the circle. The size of the circle determines the strength of the spell."

"Interesting," observed Alister, "then it would also stand to reason that you must have bile in your organ in order to perform these spells, yes?"

"Yes, I suppose so," said the witch in a flat tone.

"Wonderful, what other spells can you do?" asked Alister, the witch glared back at him, not wanting to do anything else, but Odalys held up the remote again. The witch sighed and brought her hand up again, making a circle and forming a pillar of ice.

"Splendid work today," said Odalys to the witch through the bars of her cell, "I think we've gathered quite enough data for now. Thank you for your cooperation."

The witch glared at Odalys, wanting to say something to her, but holding her tongue. Alister shoved a mashed bowl of bugs between the bars of the cell to the witch.

"Don't forget to eat," he said condescendingly, "we need you to keep up your strength for all the other tests that we have planned."

The witch stared at the bowl of mashed bugs. They didn't look appetizing, but she was hungry and had no choice. She picked up the bowl and put one of the bugs in her mouth. It tasted terrible but she forced herself to eat it. The newts laughed at her misfortune and began to leave the room.

"Hey," called the witch, "where are the others? Why am I here by myself?"

"The other witches are in the dungeon," said Alister "We've decided for now to use them to replenish our supply of bile."

"Wait, what?!" said the witch in alarm.

"Oh, that's right," said Odalys, "we're using them to extract that precious liquid gold you have inside you." As she said this she held up a bottle of golden liquid, the witch backed away in terror as she realized it was magic bile.

"Be thankful we need you to run experiments on," said Alister, "otherwise, we'd be draining you for the stuff as well, and if the other witches' screams are any indication, the process is most certainly painful."

The two newts gave a smug laugh and turned to leave before the witch asked them one more question.

"Wait, who's that in that tube? Is that a human?" asked the witch, pointing to Marcy, who was still floating in her medical capsule.

"Oh, you know what a human is," said Odalys, "I didn't think they had them in your world."

"We've heard of humans," said the witch, "I've just never seen one before. Why is she in that tank?"

"She's recovering from an unfortunate accident," answered Alister in a haughty tone, "she's also needed for a different experiment, perhaps you'll see what I mean later." With that, the two newts left, leaving the young witch alone in her cell. She brought her knees up to her face and wrapped her arms around her legs, feeling absolutely miserable.

A few minutes after the newts left, the witch heard a sound by her bars. She went over to investigate, and that's when she heard a voice.

"Hello," said the voice, the witch backed away in terror as the voice seemed to come from nowhere.

"Hey, hey, don't worry I'm not here to hurt you," said the voice.

The witch slowly crawled back to the bars, looking around, trying to see if anyone was there, but she couldn't see anything.

"Who's there?" she asked nervously.

"Right, you can't see me, but trust me, I'm here," said the voice. To prove its point, the bowl of mashed bugs rose up from the floor and began to float in the air. The witch stared at this, transfixed.

"What's going on?" she asked in alarm.

"I'm invisible," said the voice, "you can't see me, but trust me, there is someone here."

"Who are you?" asked the witch nervously.

"I'm a friend," answered the voice, "well to be more accurate, I'm a frog, though again, you can't see me."

"There are talking frogs here too?" asked the witch in surprise.

"Yes, there are all kinds of amphibians here in Amphibia," answered the frog.

"You know, I think there are demons that look like frogs back home, so I guess that's not too surprising," mused the witch.

"Well then I'm sure you'll be fine once you see the other amphibian species here," said the frog.

"How are you invisible?" asked the witch.

"I took a potion," answered the frog, "I had a few spares with me when I got stuck in the castle, I've been using them, plus some hidden passageways to avoid detection."

"You have magic potions here?" asked the witch, "if magic already exists, why does that king want to study us?"

"You use magic differently," said the frog, "I think it's because you have the innate ability to use it, that's why."

"Well, never-mind all that. Are you here to get me out?" asked the witch hopefully.

"Yes… although I can't do that right now," said the frog.

"Why not?" asked the witch.

"Well for one, you're in a castle that's floating in the sky, even if I got you out of your cell, there's not really a way for us to get out of the castle," said the frog. "For two, you have that collar on you, we need to get it off so that they can't hurt you. Finally, I haven't worked out how to free your friends, if we're going to escape then we need to get everyone out of here at the same time."

"Those other witches aren't my friends," said the witch coldly.

The frog paused for a moment, "That seems a little mean, maybe you don't know them personally but they're still from your world."

"You're right, I don't know them personally," said the witch with a hint of malice in her voice, "so can't you just break me out now?"

"Listen, I know it's rough having those two newts force you to do magic, but those other witches have it much worse, they're having their bile extracted from them," said the frog, "we have to get them out of here too."

"I hate it here!" yelled the witch, "please get me out!" tears had formed in her eyes as she looked through the bars. After a second, she felt something touch her face, wiping the tears from it.

"Listen, I'm trying to come up with a plan to get you and the other witches out of here at the same time," said the frog tenderly, "I promise I will rescue you when the time is right. Please be strong and hold on until then."

For a second, the witch was going to protest. She wanted to demand to be free now, but she had calmed down as the invisible frog had wiped the tears from her eyes, she didn't know why, but that touch… it almost felt familiar, as though it was from an old friend…

"Alright," said the witch, "I'll trust you for now, not like I have any other choice."

"I promise I'll get you out of here, but I also need to rescue her too," said the frog, she pointed to the girl in the tank, but then realized that the witch couldn't see what she was pointing to, so she added, "that human girl in the tank. I need to free her too."

"Who is she?" asked the witch, "is she really a human?"

"She's from another world, like you," answered the frog, "she got stabbed by Andrias, that's why she's in the tank. She's recovering from her injuries. I don't know why Andrias bothered saving her, but I can't imagine it's for anything good."

The witch winced at hearing that the girl had been stabbed, "Are you sure she's alright… I mean, are you sure she's not…. you know…."

"The newts have been checking on her, they've reported back to Andrias that her condition is stable," said the frog. "I'm not sure if she can be taken out of the tank yet, but once I'm sure she can, then I'll rescue you both, I promise," said the frog.

As she finished speaking, she briefly flashed into existence and the witch got a quick look at her, "Ah, I have to go now, the invisibility potion I took is wearing off. I have to find a place to hide before I appear again."

The frog began to hop away, though before she did, she turned to the witch one more time, "By the way, my name is Lilly. What's yours?"

The witch paused before replying, "Amity, my name is Amity."

---

Sprig's Birthday

"That's all you frogs do for your honking birthdays?!" asked Anne incredulously to the Plantars

"Yes, this is starting to feel a little culturally insensitive," said Hop-Pop smugly.

"Unacceptable," said Anne, spreading her arms wide, "Birthdays should be fun, and memorable especially when you're turning…. Uh… um…."

"Eleven," said Sprig.

"Eleven," repeated Anne, "and I knew that because I'm your friend. And this friend is about to give you the best birthday you've ever had in your life capeesh."

"Well, I'm intrigued, a little scared, but intrigued. Let's do it!" said Sprig excitedly.

"Do you all want to come along?" asked Anne to Polly and Hop-Pop. The two looked at each other before shaking their heads, though Polly did say.

"Maybe you should ask Luz and Amara if they're free?"

"Oh, that's a good idea," said Sprig.

"Okay, one sec," said Anne, pulling out her phone and calling Luz. After two rings, she answered, and Anne explained what was going on.

"So frogs really don't do anything else for their birthdays?" asked Luz over the phone.

"Apparently not," said Anne, "that's why I want to take Sprig out and do a bunch of fun stuff."

"Oh, that sounds great!" said Luz over the phone, she thought for a few seconds before coming up with another idea.

"Hey, are you alone?"

Anne looked over at the Plantars before leaving her room and closing the door, she stepped a few feet away before saying, "I am now, what's up?"

"Let me confirm with my mom, but how about we do cake and presents after you and Sprig go out? Me, my mom, and Amara could make a cake for him and have it ready by the time you two are done with your own celebration. We can be over at your house later and we can all celebrate together."

"Oh, wow, that's a great idea," said Anne, "but I guess that means you can't join then."

"Yeah, but that's fine, you and Sprig are closer anyway," said Luz, "you take him out and have a fun day, and we'll do cake and presents when you're done."

"Okay, see you then," said Anne, hanging up the phone.

With that, she took Sprig all around to many different places to celebrate his special day. The day started at the mall where she bought him some clothes and accessories, then the two rode the train out to Santa Monica to have some fun at the pier. Anne took Sprig on a lot of the rides they had including the roller coaster and the merry-go-round. Next, she took him to a Mexican Restaurant, they wanted to give him a free flan for his birthday, but Anne told Sprig to wait as they were going to have cake later. Finally, she took him up to Griffith Park, while the two walked around the mountains they didn't find the Hollywood sign particularly interesting. Sprig enjoyed the Observatory a lot more and Anne secretly got him a gift to open later, quickly hiding the gift in her pocket.

"Wow, that was fun! Thanks for an incredible birthday, Anne," said Sprig, "You know, at first, I couldn't understand why you'd make birthdays so special, and now I get it! Today was amazing!"

"Oh, it's not over yet!" said Anne slyly.

"There's more?!" said Sprig excitedly, "but it looks like we're heading home."

"Oh, we are," said Anne, "but I think you'll like what will be there waiting for us…"

Anne kept pedaling her bike back to her house as she arrived she put her bike away before coming for Sprig, the two walked through the door and Anne flicked the lights when suddenly there was a loud cry,

"SURPRISE!"

Sprig let out a gasp as he looked into the kitchen, it had been decorated with balloons, streamers, and a banner that read "Happy Birthday, Sprig!" on it. Oum and Camila each blew into a noise maker as they waved at Sprig while Luz, Bee, and Amara threw some confetti into the air. On the kitchen table was a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and the words "Happy Birthday, Sprig" written in pink icing. The Plantars, the Boonchuys, and the Nocedas were all standing around with their arms spread open and there were a few wrapped boxes on the table.

"Whoa, what is this?" asked Sprig, his eyes widening in delight.

"This is a birthday party," said Luz, kneeling down to the frog, "it's what we do here on Earth to celebrate birthdays."

"Luz told us that Anne was going to take you out for some fun," said Camila, "that gave us time to bake a cake for you so it would be ready when you got back."

Sprig looked at his chocolate cake, "Wait, so this whole cake is for me?"

"Well not quite," said Oum, "it's for all of us who are here."

"Though you get the first slice," said Bee.

"And you get to make your birthday wish," said Anne, lifting Sprig up and seating him on the chair facing the cake. Luz came over and placed a paper crown on his head

"Birthday wish?" asked Sprig in surprise.

"Whoa, wait a sec," said Polly suddenly interested, "Do humans get one free wish a year on their birthday?"

"Well, kind of," said Luz, "before we cut up the cake, we put candles on it and sing Happy Birthday to you, then when that's over, you make a wish then blow out the candles."

"And does this wish come true?" asked Sprig, intrigued.

The humans all looked at each other as they considered what to say Camila finally spoke.

"It may come true, though I will say it has a higher chance of coming true if you don't tell anyone. It's more like humans want you to have a good time on your special day and the wish is well a wish that something good happens to you."

"So it may or may not come true," said Sprig.

"I mean I'll admit some of our human traditions are silly," said Anne, "we don't have to do that if you don't want to."

"No, no, I want to," said Sprig, "even if it doesn't, well, I had a lot of fun with you, Anne, so I want to see all that human birthdays have to offer."

Anne smiled at hearing him say that. She looked over at the pile of wrapped boxes on the table, "Aw, you got him presents too, thank you so much!"

"No problem," said Oum, smiling, "if this is his first real birthday, he should get the full experience."

"Hop-Pop, I gotta say, human birthdays look WAY more exciting than frog birthdays," said Polly, looking longingly at both the cake and the presents.

"So wait, you're telling me on your birthday you get cake and presents? And you do it every year?" said Hop-Pop.

"I want a human birthday when it's my turn!" exclaimed Polly, Hop-Pop let out a sigh as he thought of how expensive that would be.

"Is it true you just wear a mud crown and think about your life up to that point?" asked Amara.

"Yes," said Hop-pop defensively, "don't newts do that too?"

"Well, no," answered Amara, "Actually, we're kind of similar to humans. There is a tradition that for a newt's birthday that if they lost any limbs the previous year, they tell the story about that. You're supposed to make the story daring and suspenseful! You wanna really make it feel like a life-or-death situation! But after that your friends make a toast to your daring escapades, then you share a meal with them and you all say how glad you are to be alive and that you made it to another year of life."

"Wow, that sounds pretty exciting!" said Camila.

"Yeah, I guess I'll have two stories to tell at my next birthday," said Amara with a smile.

"Okay, let me light the candles," said Bee, coming over with a lighter, "When we finish singing, go ahead and blow them out, Sprig,"

Bee lit the candles and the group all sang Happy Birthday to Sprig. Once they were done, the pink frog blew out the candles and everyone clapped! Oum came over to slice the cake and handed Sprig the first piece. She then continued cutting up the cake, passing out slices to everyone. After they were done with the cake, it was time for presents. Sprig was excited as he'd never received a birthday present before.

Luz handed him hers and he opened the wrapping to see that she had given him a Good Witch Azura book.

"Anne said you like reading, so I figured I get you the first book in the series," she said, "if you like it, I can get you the others."

"Thank you, Luz!" said Sprig, coming over to hug her. Amara handed him her present and Sprig opened it.

"This is a pocket knife," explained Amara, "it's a knife, but it also has a bunch of other tools on it as well, making it useful to have on you."

"I love it!" said Sprig, "Thank you, Amara!"

"Okay, it's our turn," said Camila and Oum, who handed Sprig their present. Sprig opened it to reveal a gold scarf that was just his size. He looked at the end and saw his name sewed on it.

"Seems that Camila and I are both seamstresses," said Oum, "When we heard it was your birthday, we thought what could we make that was quick but still handmade with love."

"We thought a scarf would be nice, and we put your name on it as a personal touch," said Camila.

Sprig couldn't think of what to say, his eyes started watering as he caressed the scarf, finally, he said.

"My parents gave me my hat for one of my birthdays, I always treasured it since it was the one thing I had from them, but now I have something else from you guys."

Sprig jumped out of his chair toward Oum and Camila, wrapping his arms around both of them.

"Thank you so much!" he said with glee, "I love it!" Camila and Oum both smiled as they hugged Sprig back. Sprig immediately wrapped the scarf around his neck.

"Okay, it's time for my gift," said Anne, "and I think you'll agree I saved the best for last!"

She reached into her pocket and pulled out the gift she had bought from the observatory. Sprig took it and opened it excitedly. It was a small brass telescope with a personalized engraving that had his name and a heart from Anne on it. Sprig was overjoyed at seeing it!

"You were right, Anne! This is the best! Thank you, thank you, thank you! I love it!" exclaimed Sprig.

"YouYou'rer welcome, dude!" said Anne, "I hope you had an amazing birthday!"

"Oh, this is definitely in my top three!" answered Sprig.

For a second Anne was incredulous, wondering how in the world this birthday could not automatically be his number one, though, after a moment, she calmed down and simply asked, "So what are numbers one and two?"

"Well, the first would be the actual day I was born and actually had life," answered Sprig, "and the second would be when Mom and Dad gave me my hat."

Those answers made a lot of sense to Anne, and she was glad she had taken the time to ask before getting offended at Sprig's answer.

"Hey, Anne, can we take a picture to commemorate this?" asked Sprig.

"Of course, dude!" said Anne. She got her phone set up and had everyone get in close so she could take the picture, she then set the timer and ran back over to join in. The group all smiled and the camera on the phone flashed.

---

Bluff to Win

"So, what is this?" asked Amity as Alister handed her something through the bars of the cell.

"This is a small booklet with the rules for Flipwart," said the newt.

"Flipwart?" asked Amity.

"Yes, it's a game of logic and strategy that we play here in Amphibia," replied Alister, "I'm giving you this booklet so that you can learn how to play."

"Why do I need to know how to play?" asked Amity.

"Because you're going to play a game against me," said Alister.

"What? Why?" asked Amity.

"Consider it another test we need you to do," replied Alister, "I don't suppose I need to 'motivate' you to participate do I?"

Amity didn't reply, as she took the booklet and began reading.

"Good girl," said Alister condescendingly, "I'll give you a few days to familiarize yourself with the game. Then we'll see how good you are."

"What happens if I lose?" said Amity worriedly.

"Nothing," said Alister flatly.

"Well… what happens if I win then?" said Amity.

"Nothing," said Alister again.

"Then what's the point?" asked Amity in frustration.

"The point is to see how smart you are," said Alister.

"Why?" asked Amity.

"So many questions today, don't worry your pretty little head about it, and just focus on playing well," said Alister.

At that moment, two robots entered the basement, both of them holding a red-haired witch.

"No, please! Let me go! Don't do this!" she cried.

The frobots kept dragging her to the operating table, placing her on it, and securing her hands and feet. Odalys came over to the witch syringe in hand.

"Ah, good day, subject two," she said in a faux cheerful voice, "time for another extraction session. Let's get some more of that sweet bile out of you."

"No! Please! Stop this!" begged the witch. Odalys ignored her and plunged the syringe deep into her bile sac, extracting as much bile as she could from her. The witch let out an agonized scream as this happened. Amity turned her head away, trying to block out the scream from her mind. Alister turned once more to her.

"Remember, if you don't want to do what we ask, then we can simply use you as another body to extract bile from," he said in a smug tone, causing Amity to look down at her sheet in terror. She began feverishly reading through the rules of how to play Flipwart.

"Good girl," said Alister, "I look forward to our match."

He turned to check on his wife, the redheaded witch still screaming in the background as her bile was extracted. Amity covered her ears in a desperate attempt to block out the sound!

---

A few days later, Amity was seated at a table across from Alister, a board set up between the two. Amity had spent the past few days familiarizing herself with how to play this game and hoped that she could win the match.

"Remember, there's nothing at stake here," said Alister calmly as he sat down, "we just want to see how smart you are."

"Forgive me if I don't believe you," said Amity in a sarcastic voice, Alister rolled his eyes.

"You go first," said Alister. Amity made her first move on the board. Alister raised his eye seeing her move, then followed suit. The game continued in this manner, both players engaged and both doing their best to win. Alister managed the first capture of one of Amity's knights, but Amity struck back, taking his toad warrior. For a while, they both seemed evenly matched. Amity took note of Alister's strategy and saw he was playing aggressively. While she was still new to this game, she knew that sometimes pretending that you knew what you were doing was a valid strategy. Her father had taught her that in regard to battling. She decided to use that to her advantage and began playing aggressively herself, though it was all a distraction as she tried to get Alister to mess up and make a mistake she could take advantage of. After what seemed like forever, Alister finally made that mistake and left his wart unguarded. Amity actually smiled as she moved in for the kill

"Well, this has been exciting but I think I'm about to win," bragged Amity. She made her final move to right in front of Alister's Wart and managed to flip it over. Amity looked over at him a smug look on her face.

"And that's game!" she said in a cocky voice. Alister didn't reply but simply kept staring at her. After a moment, he brought up his hands in a slow clap.

"Bravo, Amity," he said while continuing to slowly clap his hands, "I must say your victory was unexpected but still intriguing."

"Hmph, you shouldn't underestimate me," she said, savoring her victory, Alister looked over at her, his face forming into a smile.

"Ha, you know it's funny you remind me of my daughter," said Alister.

"You have a daughter?" said Amity, relaxing a bit.

"Yes, I taught her how to play Flipwart when she was young," said Alister, smiling, "she's gotten quite good at it, though she's only managed to beat me once."

Alister looked closer at Amity before saying, "It's strange you even look like her a bit."

Amity didn't know what to say in response to that but after a bit asked, "So where is your daughter?"

"I don't know," answered Alister

"You're not concerned for where she might be?" asked Amity

"She's almost of age, she can do what she wants," said Alister, "Besides, we're in a flying castle, so it's not like she can visit me."

"Yes, we are in a flying castle, dear," said Odalys, coming over and looking at Amity, "Just thought I'd remind you of that in case you had any ideas of escaping. Even if you got out of your cell, you have no way of getting off this castle. Speaking of which, I think it's time we returned you to your cell."

Amity made a face but complied and got up to return to her cell. As she did, she looked again at the human who was in the tank.

"Curious about her?" asked Alister, as he closed the cell door.

"A little," replied Amity, "you never told me what happened to her."

"It's not your concern," said Alister brusquely. He paused before adding, "And maybe we won't need her for the planned experiment anymore."

"What do you mean?" asked Amity.

"Now, now, Alister, don't go spoiling the surprise for her," said Odalys, coming up behind him. "I'm sure Andrias will be thrilled to hear that this witch might be as smart as that human."

"Andrias, the giant newt who captured us?" said Amity in terror. "Why would he be thrilled about this?"

Before either of the newts could answer, they were distracted by the sounds of the frobots bringing in another witch to the basement chamber. He was a male witch with long black hair

"Let me go, you fiends!" he yelled as he struggled against them. After a bit of struggling, he managed to get his hand free and quickly made a spell circle, he lifted up a large rock from the castle floor and hurled it at one of the frobots, bashing it in the chest. Though as he did it, he brought up a hand to his heart, the spell clearly causing him pain. He worked through the pain and bolted to the stairs that led out of the basement, he had just reached them when suddenly, he collapsed to the floor in agony. Odalys had pressed a button on her remote that sent electricity through the collar around his neck.

"Tut, tut, subject three," said Odalys, clicking her tongue, and walking over to him. "I would have thought by now you'd have learned to stop resisting. Your species must be extremely stupid if you can't grasp such a simple concept as 'trying to escape equals pain.'"

The male witch stared up at her defiantly, still clutching his heart. Odalys continued her taunting.

"It doesn't help that in your case, we've been draining you of bile," began Odalys, "I doubt you'd have much fight in you before we overpowered you and returned you to your cell. But perhaps you need a different form of motivation."

She grabbed his head and turned him towards Amity, making him lock eyes with her.

"In case you forgot, we have a child of your species with us," began Odalys, "and I think that seeing her suffer might cause you to think twice before you consider defying us again."

"Go ahead, hurt her," spat the male witch as he looked at Amity, "she's the youngest of the Blights. Their family does nothing but cause ruin for others. They tried to force my father-in-law to sell his farm to them. I would delight in seeing her suffer!"

Amity was hurt by that comment, her face falling as she heard the black-haired witch say that. Odalys was taken aback by this, but let out a small laugh.

"Ha, you would take a chance to hurt the child of an enemy, how pragmatic. Maybe you have some newt in you after all." she said to the male witch, complimenting him, "Let's see if your resolve holds." She pressed a button on her remote, sending a jolt of electricity through Amity, causing her to fall to the ground in pain.

"Stop! Please!" begged Amity as she writhed on the ground. The male witch's face fell almost instantly as he saw her continue to cry out in pain, part of him had hoped that the newt would call his bluff, but after a few moments of seeing her like that, he finally yelled.

"Alright, enough! I'm sorry, I won't resist anymore, stop! STOP HURTING HER!"

Odalys didn't stop and continued to allow Amity to be electrocuted, flashing a cruel smile at the witch, as Amity continued to scream.

"This is what you wanted isn't it?" she asked in a cruel voice.

"NO! STOP!" yelled the witch to Odalys, "I'll do what you want! I won't resist. Please STOP HURTING HER!"

Odalys continued pressing down on the button, continued smiling her cruel smile as Amity began screaming louder hitting her fists against the ground repeatedly in a desperate attempt to stop the pain. Alister looked down at Amity with concern.

"Odalys stop!" commanded Alister, shooting her a look, "we can't let her be hurt, Andrias has plans for her."

Odalys looked as though she would protest this, but did release the button and the electricity stopped, but Amity stayed on the ground crying from the pain. The male witch felt a deep sense of shame and turned his face away from her. Seeing the young girl suffer had brought him no satisfaction at all. He felt nothing but guilt inside him as he watched Amity continue to cry.

Odalys shook her head in disappointment, "And here I thought you'd let me hurt the girl for much longer. Pity you aren't as ruthless as I'd expected. Now with that out of the way let us hope that this will be the last time we have to resort to this unpleasantness. Are we clear, subject three?"

The witch nodded his head. As he did, he looked over at Amity, feeling terrible, hating himself for what he had put her through.

"Good, now we still have an extraction session to do with you so, chop, chop," said Odalys, clapping her hands. The frobots came over and pulled the witch to the operating table, Odalys readying the syringe. The witch closed his eyes bracing himself for the pain he knew he would feel. It didn't stop him from letting out a loud scream as the syringe plunged into his chest…

---

The Internet is for Fun!

"So when Anne showed us the internet, she showed us the glory of cat videos," exclaimed Sprig, "what do you have for us, Luz?"

"Well, if you've already seen cat videos, I can find something else. Is there anything, in particular, you want to see?" asked Luz.

"Oh how about something related to Cosmic Frontiers?" asked Sprig. Luz typed on her computer bringing up the results.

"Oh, what is that?" asked Sprig looking at one of the images.

"This is fan art," said Luz, "someone who was a fan of Cosmic Frontiers made images of it."

"Whoa cool!" said Sprig looking at the art, "you know Bee only has a few of the books. I still haven't read the last one. I'm interested to see what happens."

"I read a few of those books," said Anne, "Dad showed me that series when I was younger, he was a big fan of it and tried to get me into it, but I only thought it was okay."

"Well at least your dad had some nerdy interests," replied Luz.

"There are a lot of cool images here," said Sprig as he looked through them, "do humans do this with other things too?"

"Oh yeah of course," said Luz, "there's a very big fandom for Azura art."

"I wanna see that," said Amara, "I'm so glad I read the other books in the series since I've been here on Earth."

"I've read a few chapters of that book you gave me Luz," said Sprig, "I have to admit I am loving it so far!"

Luz typed on her computer and brought up some Azura images, Amara scrolled through them until she got to one particular image.

"Oh, uh she's not wearing very many clothes in this one is she," observed Amara. Anne and Luz's faces both went bright red at seeing the image.

"Ah yes," began Luz, "in addition to regular art there are some fans who prefer to make more….shall we say spicy art of things."

"How is this spicy?" asked Sprig looking at the image as though it were benign, "if you eat it will you feel a lot of pain?"

Anne and Luz looked at each other before Anne replied, "No, it means artists want to draw her in more… revealing attire."

"I mean I can't deny she does look good in this outfit," said Luz, "Honestly this is tame compared to other Azura images out there."

"I mean do people draw her naked?" asked Anne sarcastically. Luz didn't reply instead looking off into the distance, her silence answering the question. Her face had grown quite red.

"Are you serious?" asked Anne slightly horrified, "I thought that series was primarily meant for kids."

"It is," replied Luz, "but it has a set of adult fans too. Some of whom have no qualms about that kind of stuff."

"Huh," said Amara, "so what else is on the internet?"

"Oh I know something you might like," said Luz, "I checked out that band the driver told us about, Oh Geeez, they're actually pretty good, They've got a great selection of songs, and their songs cover a lot of range from upbeat rock to soulful ballads. Check out this song."

She brought up a video of a song.

[Play "Take Me Somewhere New" by Oh Geeez]

The song began to play on Luz's computer, Anne, Sprig, and Amara were all drawn in as they listened to the song. They had to admit it was beautiful yet sad. As the song got to a certain part, Sprig listened more intently.

Where there's

Rolling hills and forest pines

Balconies neath city lights

Mysteries and legends tall, that

Me and all my friends will solve, when

I return I'll know my worth

Oh, won't you say we'll

Leave today?

As the song ended Sprig spoke, "That was really nice, when he was describing those far-off places, I really got sucked into it and could almost see in my mind what he was talking about."

"Yeah, that was really beautiful," said Anne, "I can see why that Driver guy likes them"

"They wrote that song as a tribute to animation," said Luz, "I love the mood and atmosphere he creates with the song. The lyrics about how we long to escape, the melody it sounds so bittersweet. It really brings everything together."

"I bet a group like that must have a ton of followers," said Amara excitedly, she looked down at the stats of the video and was taken aback!

"What?! This song only have around 10,000 views?! That's outrageous!" she exclaimed.

"Unfortunately, that's how it goes sometimes," said Anne to the newt, "You can't really explain the internet. Sometimes, certain things become popular and others don't."

"Ugh, tell me about it," growled Luz, "It's ridiculous how people make "meme," or "out of context," videos and then get thousands of views for those." She switched to a sarcastic voice, "Oh yeah, you essentially made a clip show of parts of a series that are out of context so somehow it's funnier now, that didn't take any skill at all. Or hey I found the parts of the series that have become memes and look I uploaded them. Give my video a million views!"

"Do you really consider memes as art?" asked Amara, "I've seen different discussions on the internet about that."

"I don't," said Luz firmly, "it takes almost no effort to make a meme. Meanwhile, there's creators who are actually trying to make something meaningful and get it out there, and they barely get noticed."

"Oh, hey, what's that video?" said Sprig, pointing to a video in the recommended list. Luz let out a small huff as she realized what it was.

"Oh, that," she began, "that's an Azura Abridged video by TomatoPaste."

"Azura Abridged?" asked Amara with intrigue, "those books are pretty long, I imagine it would take a lot of work to abridge them, but what could you really even cut out?"

"No, not that kind of abridged," said Luz, "it's more like… well here it will be easier if you just watch the video."

After the video had finished Sprig, Anne, and Amara all had smiles on their faces from laughing.

"Oh man, that was funny," said Sprig.

"He pointed out a lot of the flaws and plot holes from the book and made it into a funny video," said Amara.

"You know, I'm not even that big a fan of Azura, but I still thought it was funny," said Anne.

"Yeah, it was funny," said Luz with a bit of a sigh.

"What's wrong, Luz?" asked Anne, "do you not like it because it's making fun of Azura?"

"No, not all," replied Luz, "honestly, I think it's funny. It's made me laugh on quite a few occasions, but..."

"But what?" asked Anne.

"It's just… he managed to get 100,000 subscribers in less than a year making an abridged series about Azura. Meanwhile, I've tried making some good music videos about both that and anime shows and I don't even have a thousand," answered Luz in a huff.

"Oh, are you jealous of this guy?" asked Amara.

"A little, yes," said Luz quickly, "I mean, it's great that he made something that a lot of fans of Azura like and that honestly is really funny, but… I guess I'm more jealous of the fact that he got so popular so quickly. Here I am making music videos that hardly get any views and writing fanfics that have almost no hits, but this guy made some short funny videos and now everyone's talking about him."

"Don't worry about that, Luz," said Anne, "You shouldn't compare yourself to other people. Was there a reason you wanted to get internet famous?"

"I mean, I just wanted people to notice me," said Luz, "Before I met you guys, I didn't have any friends, so I thought if I could get a lot of followers online, maybe people would finally like me."

Anne came up to Luz and put her arms around her, Sprig, Amara, and Polly following suit.

"Well, I like you, a lot," said Anne, "so who cares what random strangers on the internet think?"

Luz smiled at hearing Anne say that.

"Okay, what else can you show us about the internet?" asked Sprig, gazing at the laptop.

"Hmmm," thought Luz for a moment before coming up with an idea, "Well, how about some comic dub?"

Luz typed on her computer and brought up an Azura comic dub to show Sprig, Amara, and Anne.

"Oh wow, was this by the author who wrote Azura?" asked Amara.

"Actually, no," said Luz, "it was made by a fan, someone called Evening Evan."

"A fan made this?" said Amara in surprise, "Wow, I mean, it looks so good. If you told me it was made by the author, I would have believed you."

"This Evening Evan guy is a really good artist," said Luz, "he's made a lot of comics for Azura that really capture the spirit and tone of the story."

"But wait a sec," said Anne as she looked at the name on the video, "it wasn't Evening Evan who made this comic dub video, was it?"

"No, it was someone else," said Luz.

"Huh that doesn't seem fair, does it?" said Anne, "It sounds like they're stealing his work."

"I see where you're coming from," said Luz, "though I will admit this is at least a comic dub, the person who made this video voiced the comic and added in sound effects and other stuff, they also acknowledged that the comic wasn't there's and they have a link in the description to the original. I don't know if this person got actual permission from Evening Evan to make a dub of the comic, but because they added to it, I wouldn't say it's straight-up stealing."

"I guess that makes sense," said Anne.

"However, there are some people who do make just videos of the comic, where all they do is show the comic and that's it," said Luz bitterly, "they don't dub their voices or add any sound they just show the comic and maybe they give credit to the artist or maybe they don't, that I would consider stealing."

"In any case, that was a cool comic," said Amara, "I hope that Evening Evan can put a stop to the people who are just reposting his stuff.

"I hope so too," said Luz, "let's see what else can I show you. Oh, well, if you like that comic, maybe you'd like a full-on fictional story.

"Wait, you mean people write their own versions of stories that already exist?" asked Amara.

"Yeah, exactly," answered Luz opening her laptop, "it's called… fanfiction."

"Oooh," said Sprig, looking interested, "Anne, you never told me about that."

"Well…" began Anne, "honestly, it can be a bit of a minefield."

"Huh, what do you mean?" asked Sprig.

"Mmm, the thing is, since anyone can write fanfiction, it well… it tends to vary on the quality," said Luz.

"Understatement of the year," said Anne flatly.

"Hey, Luz. I think you told me that you wrote one of these fanfictions about Good Witch Azura, right?" asked Amara.

"Yeah, I did. Well, Marcy helped me," clarified Luz, "we didn't get very far, we started it before we all got trapped in Amphibia. I bet most people think the fic is abandoned, but I'm curious to see how it's doing."

Luz clicked a few links on her computer, bringing up her profile page, and scrolled to her fanfic.

"Okay, we got a few reviews in the time we were gone, most of them are one-sentence ones, but there's one or two that seemed to really like the direction our fic was headed," said Luz.

"So, are you going to continue it then?" asked Anne.

"I'm not sure, maybe," said Luz, "It feels wrong to continue writing it without Marcy. Maybe I'll write some more, but I won't post anything until she gets a chance to read it too."

"So you're not the only writer on here, right?" asked Sprig as he hopped into Luz's lap.

"No there's hundreds of others," said Luz, "And the best thing is you can sort through categories to see which fiction you want to look for. There are even sites that recommend certain fictions that they think are good. For instance, let's look on a recommended page for Cynthia Coven fics."

Luz typed a few commands on her computer, eventually getting to the site she wanted.

"Let's see… ah here we go," began Luz, "Loyalty Among Covens", by CaptainCT5. Huh, this sounds interesting, let's have a look."

After reading a few chapters of this fic, both the amphibians and the humans had a look of disgust on their faces.

"So, uh, that was something," said Amara, not sure how to process what she had just read.

"Hey, can we look at the author's profile again?" said Anne, "Because I want to confirm something." The group looked at the writer's profile and confirmed Anne's suspicions.

"Yeah, okay, so he's a guy in his late 20s writing a fic where he ships his self-insert character with-uh how old was Cynthia when the series started?"

"Thirteen," said Luz in a disgusted tone.

"Thirteen," repeated Anne, "that's how old I am right now, that would be like a guy in his late 20's writing a self-insert ship with me!" Anne crossed her arms and looked straight ahead as she said this, her eyes glaring in a look of disapproval as if to show her disgust for anyone who would enjoy such a fic…

"I mean at least when I shipped my self-insert character with the prince, I was actually thirteen," exclaimed Luz, "and he's only fifteen in the story so we're not that far apart in age. Though maybe I should make a note about that when I get older and tell people I wrote this fic when I was thirteen."

"Wait a minute," said Anne suddenly glaring at Luz, "You shipped yourself with a character from Azura?"

Luz's face became bright red as she realized why Anne sounded angry about that, "Oh, ah, well… yeah I did. But in my defense, this was way before we were dating."

Anne continued to glare at Luz though she finally said in a playful voice, "I guess I'll have to watch out whenever there are young handsome princes around." She put her arm around Luz to show she was joking. Luz smiled.

"Do humans do that a lot in these fanfics?" asked Sprig, "Ship themselves with made-up characters?"

Anne and Luz shared a look before both responding, "Yeah, they do."

"He sounds like a real creep," said Amara, "I mean, there are a few elite newts who do the same thing but in real life. I've seen some older male newts make marriage contracts with newts that are much younger than them. In some cases, they want to marry them as soon as they come of age, and a lot of times, these newts are almost twenty years older than their brides."

Anne, Luz, and Sprig all made disgusted faces.

"Yikes," said Sprig, "I mean, I know frogs practice arranged marriages too, but we try to make sure both frogs are around the same age for that. I mean, Maddie's father tried to force me into one, but at least Maddie and I are similar in age."

"You know what's even more hilarious?" said Luz, "This guy claims he has a degree in animation but a lot of these pictures he 'created' are literally just screenshots from the Cynthia Coven movie with his character inserted in. Look!"

Luz brought up a few images from the movie and compared them to images this author had created. It was evident that what she said was true.

"Wow, you're right," said Anne as she studied the pictures, "I mean, the other characters aren't even looking at him. It's so obvious that he just inserted himself."

"I mean, he has a few other images that he actually made," said Luz, looking further down the page, "Honestly, I'd say they're… alright. They're decent, but that's it, not something I'd expect from someone who claims to have a degree in animation."

"Uggh, and he has a lot of images of him kissing Cynthia," observed Anne in disgust, "I mean I know there are people like this on the internet, but even still, it disgusts me."

"I mean the funny thing is he's not even the problem," said Luz.

"What do you mean?" asked Sprig.

"Oh it's one thing to write a self-insert fic where you ship your character with someone," began Luz, "I mean, I did it with my fic, though as I said before, I am at least close in age to the character I was shipping myself with. But you know, I never expected my fic was going to be all that popular and it's not. I have some reviews on it, and a few followers and that's it. On the other hand, this guy, who I remind you, is shipping himself with an underage character, has over three hundred reviews and a bunch of followers. I mean that's crazy! Not only that but his fic isn't even really changing anything that happened in the story. There are so many other better fics out there that people could be reading instead of this. it should not be as popular as it is. There should not be this many people favoriting his fic or encouraging him.

"Yeah, I see what you're saying," said Anne, "It's really obvious what he's doing with this and people are telling him he's the greatest writer ever and his story is amazing! That really is disturbing. I don't understand why people do that unless they're trolling him, but somehow, I doubt that. If I ever found out who this guy is, I'd punch him in the face for sure!"

"I agree. These kinds of fics should not be supported or encouraged by people," said Luz. She got up and joined Anne. The two crossed their arms and looked straight ahead with a disapproving stare, their gaze piercing deep into the souls of anyone who actually would support that kind of ship…

"There has to be a better fic than that one!" exclaimed Amara.

"Well, let's have a look," said Luz, sitting back down at her computer. After a bit, she found another one.

"Hmm, this looks interesting," said Luz as she found another fic, "Oh, it's a crossover between Cynthia Coven and Good Witch Azura. What if Cynthia found her way to the Witch's Realm? The Good Witch's Coven' by ChampionElCid. Huh, that's an interesting name."

"I suppose it's worth a shot," said Sprig cautiously, "After reading that other guy's fic, I need to wash the taste out of my mouth."

"Wow, this one has over five hundred reviews," said Anne, "I sure hope this one is good!"

An hour later, the group huddled close to the computer screen as they finished reading the last chapter.

"OMG, that was amazing!" exclaimed Luz.

"Wow, I only know a little bit about both Azura and Cynthia, but man, I still loved that fic," said Anne.

"I know nothing about either," confessed Sprig, "but I'd still say I liked it."

"Having finally read both Azura and Cynthia Coven, I can say with almost absolute certainty that this may be the best crossover between those two series ever!" exclaimed Amara.

"What did you think, Luz?" asked Anne.

"You know I gotta say at first I wasn't too keen on the Cynthia x Azura ship," began Luz. "I mean I am a BIG Azura x Hecate shipper, and I just love how they went from enemies to rivals to finally lovers. It's done so well in the book that it really is an awesome ship! That being said… the Cynthia x Azura ship did grow on me, and it felt natural in this universe."

"I agree," said Amara, "and I mean, the author said this was an alternate universe anyway, so it's nice to see how things change in that kind of universe."

"I do wonder what's gonna happen to Hecate now though?" asked Luz. "In the original story, a big part of her redemption was because of Azura and the relationship they had."

"Well, the author said he wasn't going to leave Hecate alone," said Amara, "so I assume he's going to ship her with someone, the question is who?"

Luz and Amara both brought their hand to their chin as they wondered about that.

"I'm just glad we were able to find a good story," said Sprig, "there sure are a lot of different things on the internet."

"Yes there are," said Luz, "some better than others, but if you take the time to sift through the bad things you can usually find something pretty good."

"Agreed," said Anne.

"Hmmm," said Luz as she looked at the author's profile, "He has an account on another site. Oh, It looks like he also writes poetry, interesting. I may have to check some of these out, oh I wonder if he'd give me any writing advice. You know I really liked that story I want to give him a review."

Luz typed some more on her computer, submitting the review when she was done. A few days later, Luz was surprised to see that the author had replied to her. She opened her email and took a look to see what the author had said in response.

"Hey, thanks for the review! I'm glad you enjoyed my story and that the Cynthia x Azura ship grew on you. It's always nice to get a new fan who finds your fic and really likes it.

I hope I continue to impress you…"

---

Hopes and Dreams Part 4

"So we rushed over to the arena and at the last second, we managed to save our friend," said Lilly with a flourish, "She was pretty badly beaten up, Anne picked her up in her arms and carried her out of the Arena. I fought Beatrix, but she retreated and fled, we won the day and saved our friend."

"Wow, that sounds amazing!" said Amity through the bars to the invisible Lilly, "It gives me hope that when the time comes, you'll be able to work some miracle and get us all out of here." Her eyes moved up to the tank and the human girl that was suspended inside it.

"So, you knew her?" asked Amity.

"I only met her briefly," said Lilly, "She's a friend of that other girl I told you about, Luz."

"Luz," said Amity slowly, "Huh, it's strange, but that name feels familiar to me for some reason."

"Oh, I'm sure you'd like her if you actually met her," said Lilly, "She's in the human realm right now, but I know her. She's resourceful, and I know she'll figure out some way to get back here. Plus she's got Anne and Amara helping her out. Amara's one of the smartest newts I know, so I'm sure they'll do it."

"Didn't you tell me that Amara is the daughter of those newts who have been experimenting on us?" asked Amity aggressively.

"Yes, she is, but trust me, she's not like them," said Lilly quickly, "Well, she used to be a bit, but she changed."

"Still she's their daughter," said Amity flatly, "It's not so easy changing when your parents control your life," she paused before adding, "Trust me, I know."

Lilly looked at her curiously, "What do you mean by that?"

Amity thought about answering but decided instead to change the subject, "Forget about that. I have a question for you. You said that you, your friends, and Marcy stopped the toads from taking over the city and rescued King Andrias, why did you do that? Didn't you know he was evil?"

Lilly was about to answer but before she could, she flashed into existence, signaling that her invisibility potion was wearing off.

"Ahh, I have to go," said Lilly, "I'll visit you again when I can. Stay strong, Amity!"

"Bye! thank you for telling me all those stories," called Amity to the frog as she hopped away. Once Lilly was gone, Amity let out a sigh, feeling sad and alone again. She pulled her legs up to her face and brought her arms around them. After a second, she looked up again at the tank that the human girl was in.

"So, uh, how you doing in there?" asked Amity, knowing she wouldn't get a response.

"So you got stabbed, that must have hurt a lot," she said to the girl, "I got electrocuted, that hurt a lot too, I don't know which is worse, being stabbed is like a big amount of pain all at once, but being shocked it like pain coursing through your whole body all the time."

Amity stood up and went to the edge of her cell looking up at the tank, "Really wish I could talk to you if nothing else. I'm so lonely down here. There were other witches captured with me, but they took them somewhere else. I haven't seen them since being brought here, well, except for when they bring them down to… extract their bile." Amity let out a shudder as she said that.

"One of them was mad at me for something my parents did," said Amity out loud to the tank, "He said he didn't care what happened to me because I'm a Blight. I mean, I get it, but still, it hurt knowing he was willing to let me suffer for that. To his credit, once that newt started electrocuting me, he begged her to stop."

Amity looked up again at the tank and decided to stop. She felt a little better talking to it, but the fact that she got no response made her sad. Feeling tired, Amity decided to lie down on the cold floor and try to go to sleep. The floor was hard and uncomfortable, but she was eventually able to fall into an uneasy sleep.

When Amity woke up, she let out a gasp as realized she wasn't in her cell anymore. She looked around and saw stars everywhere. It was as though she was standing in the night sky. Amity took in her surroundings, wondering where she was. Had she managed to escape her cell? As she thought about this, she began to hear a sound. She turned toward where she thought she heard the sound, which was hard as the sky seemed to go on forever. Amity kept walking, trying to find the source of the sound. As she got closer, she realized the sound was crying. She looked forward and saw a figure sitting on the ground, crying. She had brought her knees up to her face so she didn't notice Amity approaching. Once Amity got a good look at her, she realized it was the girl from the tank! Though she was dressed differently, she was wearing a t-shirt and some sweatpants and was barefoot. She also had a pink blanket wrapped around her neck. The blanket had stars and moons emblazoned on it. Amity cautiously approached the girl, not sure what to say to her. The girls continued crying unaware of Amity's presence. After spending some time at the girls side Amity finally reached out to touch her shoulder

"Hey are you alright?" she asked.

The girl looked up and let out a gasp, backing away from Amity.

"Who… who are you?" she asked nervously.

"I'm Amity," said Amity, "I don't really know where we are though, but you, you're the girl in the tank. Marcy, right?"

The girl stood up and looked Amity in her eyes, "Yeah, I'm Marcy, but what do you mean 'girl in the tank?' I don't recall being in a tank of some kind."

Amity looked around before replying, "I'm not sure where we are right now, but back in the real world I'm stuck in a cell in a basement in some floating castle. You're also in that basement but you're in a healing tank of some kind. I don't think you're conscious, you have a mask and some tubes hooked up to your body."

Marcy thought for a bit, "I remember being in the throne room, Andrias had just… he just told my other friends my secret, I… I was devastated, but I tried to justify it! Anne and Luz, they fixed their friendship and got together thanks to me. Then… Luz said something about her father, then… Andrias threw Luz and Sprig out the window, but I was able to save them… I think. Then…"

Marcy trailed off as she remembered what happened next. She stopped talking and broke down crying, falling to her knees. Amity came over to her.

"I… I… I think I got hurt, but I tried to tell Luz and Anne I was sorry. I was sorry for what I did, and I just didn't want to be alone! But now… I bet they hate me!"

Marcy began to cry louder, bringing her hands up to her face, "It's all my fault! I brought them to Amphibia against their will and now they'll never talk to me again. I've ruined my friendship with them! I'm going to be alone forever!"

Amity remained silent, not knowing what to say to that. She didn't know how to deal with crying as none of her friends ever did. Eventually, she did put her hand on Marcy's shoulder to try and offer some measure of comfort, but it didn't help and Marcy kept crying.

Amity racked her brain, trying to think of what she could do to help the girl. Finally, she quickly made a spell circle testing to see if her magic would work in this place. Thankfully, it did.

"Hey, hey, uh…. want to see something cool?" she asked Marcy. Marcy stopped crying and turned to her. Amity made a spell circle and caused a small orb of light to appear. It rose up in the air, dazzling the young girl.

"Whoa, that's amazing! It's like that light glyph that Luz, Maddie, and I discovered. But you were able to do it with your hand! exclaimed Marcy. She looked closer at Amity, finally realizing something as she looked up at her ears.

"Oh, your ears are so pointy," said Marcy, "did you have surgery to make them elf-like?"

"What!? No these are my natural ears" said Amity in disbelief, though after looking at Marcy's ears she realized something, "oh wait that's right you're a human. Your ears are round right?"

"Well of course I'm a human," said Marcy, though she paused before adding, "Aren't you human too?"

"Uh no I'm not," answered Amity, "I'm a witch, from the Demon Realm."

Marcy's eyes lit up at that statement, She stared deep into Amity's face, all previous sadness and tears gone and forgotten. In fact, this was the first time Amity had seen her smile, she had to admit Marcy had a very bright very beautiful smile.

"Whoa, a witch?" asked Marcy excitedly, "like Good Witch Azura?"

Amity actually did a double take at hearing that, before replying in a very loud voice, "Yeah, like her. Wait, are you a fan of Good Witch Azura too?" Amity now sporting a large smile of her own.

"Yes!" exclaimed Marcy, "I've read all five books so many times."

"Wait, five books?" said Amity, "There are more than four books in the series?"

"Yes, I think in total there's going to be seven, but right now, they're on book five," answered Marcy.

"Ah man, I only have books one through four," said Amity in a defeated voice.

"I have the fifth book. I could lend it to you if you want," said Marcy.

Marcy stood up and was about to reach into her backpack when she realized she didn't have it on her. She looked around and for the first time, noticed the strange place the two seemed to be trapped in. She gazed around her at the stars that blanketed this strange realm.

"Where are we?" asked Marcy curiously.

"I… I don't know," answered Amity, "I went to sleep and woke up in this place, then I wandered around a bit and I found you."

Marcy again looked around her before saying, "Maybe this is some sort of dream world. You said you went to sleep. I bet you're dreaming. I guess that means I am too."

"Have you been asleep in that tank this whole time?" asked Amity.

"I think so… I'm not sure, sometimes, I wake up briefly, but then fall back asleep. Other times, I have nightmares," replied Marcy.

"Well, I have some good news then," said Amity, "Your frog friend Lilly is working on a way to free us."

"Lilly…" Marcy paused for a second, "Oh, right, Luz's friend. Yeah, she's the one who can wield the Masamune. Wait, you've met her?"

"Yeah, she's been visiting me in my cell," said Amity.

"Cell?!" said Marcy uncomfortably forgetting that Amity had told her about that earlier, "Wait, why are you in a cell? What happened?"

"So, you know how I told you I was from the Demon Realm?" began Amity, "I was on my way home from school when suddenly, I got attacked by some metal abomination. I managed to get free and fought against it for a time using my own abomination magic, but eventually, I was overpowered and it tied me up and took me away. I wasn't the only one, though. That thing captured some other witches, and then it took us through a portal, and the next thing we knew, we were in a strange throne room with that giant blue newt."

Marcy froze upon hearing that, and the wheels in her head began turning as she slowly realized what had happened. Her face fell as she realized that Andrias had used the box to capture her.

"That king said he wanted to run experiments on us, and for some reason, he had me brought to the basement," continued Amity.

"Oh…" said Marcy in a defeated voice.

"Do you know what's going on?" asked Amity, "Lilly told me you used to work with the king. Why is he doing this?"

"I… I don't know," said Marcy, though as she said this, she looked away from Amity, causing the witch to become suspicious.

"You know something, don't you?" said Amity now in a more accusing manner, "I saw it in your face just now!"

"I… I…" began Marcy, not sure what to say.

"If there's something you know about what's going on, then for Titan's sake, tell me!" said Amity, her voice growing louder, a hint of anger in it.

Marcy took a gulp before finally saying, "I don't know why the king captured you. But I bet he was able to do it with the Calamity Box. It's some strange box that used to belong to his ancestors. They used it to travel to other worlds and conquer them. I don't know why he kidnapped you, but I'm pretty sure that's how he did it."

"Wait a minute, I just remembered something," said Amity looking hard at Marcy, "Lilly told me about how you and your friends saved Andrias from being overthrown, is that true?"

Marcy began to sweat nervously not sure how to reply to that, but also not wanting to lie.

"I…listen it's complicated," said Marcy.

"It doesn't sound complicated to me," replied Amity in an accusing tone, "did you help Andrias or not?"

"Okay, yes I did," admitted Marcy, "but please let me explain–"

"So it's your fault!" said Amity loudly.

"Wait, listen, please!" begged Marcy before she was cut off

"It's your fault I got kidnapped, your fault I'm stuck in a cell, and your fault that those newts TORTURED ME!" yelled Amity, her voice getting louder and angrier with each accusation.

"No, I… I didn't mean for this to happen," pleaded Marcy, coming closer to Amity. Amity backed away.

"IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!" yelled Amity in a burst of anger at Marcy, tears falling down her face, her voice hovering between anger and sadness.

Marcy collapsed at that accusation falling to her knees. She began crying loudly unnerving Amity.

"You're right it is my fault!" she said loudly through tears, "I'm the one who found the music box and forced Sasha, Anne and Luz to come with me to Amphibia. I helped the King recharge it, it's my fault Luz got hurt and… now your life has been ruined too because of me."

Marcy stopped talking as the full weight of what she had done hit her, She brought her hands up to her face and covered it while crying. As Amity watched the young girl cry she began to regret yelling at her. Seeing Marcy like this made her feel terrible for what she had said. This girl must have felt a lot of guilt over getting her trapped if she reacted like this, and being yelled at probably didn't do anything to help. Amity took a breath and stepped toward her, putting her hand on her shoulder which surprised Marcy. Marcy stopped crying and looked up at her.

"I'm sorry," said Amity in the nicest voice she could manage, "it's been hard for me here. Those newts have been experimenting on me, one of them tortured me just to prove a point, I've been eating nothing but bugs since I got here. I'm so scared and so lonely, I miss my dad, I…I'm sorry for yelling at you."

Marcy wiped her face and managed a smile, which Amity returned. Amity sat down next to Marcy.

"Hey why don't you tell me what your favorite part of Good Witch Azura is?" said Amity.

Marcy's smile widened, "well there's so many moments to choose from. I think one of my favorites would be when Azura first gets her staff in the first book."

"That was amazing," said Amity, "one of my favorite moments is the first time Hecate and Azura teamed up together."

"For sure!" said Marcy excitedly, "I think we all know that was the beginning of their eventual relationship."

Amity let out a laugh before saying, "Yeah."

The two kept talking, discussing more of their favorite moments from the books, after a while the conversation changed and Marcy began asking Amity questions about her world. Amity in turn asked her things about the human world. As they continued talking the world around them began shaking. The stars began to go out and the girls' bodies began to fade away.

"What's happening?" asked Marcy in distress.

"I think we're waking up!" said Amity.

Amity jumped awake from her position on the floor. She quickly got up, ran to the bars of her cell, and looked frantically toward the tank where Marcy was floating. For a brief second, Marcy opened her eyes. She looked around the room she was in before her eyes found Amity. The two locked eyes for a brief second, behind her mask Marcy smiled though Amity couldn't see. After a few moments, Marcy's eyes closed and she faded back into unconsciousness.

---

Paying Respects

"Are we almost there?" asked Anne, a little impatiently

"Just a bit longer, dear," said her mother as she leaned back.

"Good, because you still haven't told me where we're going or why I had to dress up," said Anne. She sat in the backseat in a black dress with black tights and black dress shoes on.

"Or why you had us come along too," said Sprig, who was also wearing black dress clothes.

"Yeah, these clothes aren't like our disguises," said Polly, who was wrapped in a black scarf, "I think people will notice that we're not human

"There won't be that many people at the place we're going to. Don't worry, Bee and I will keep a lookout for you," said Mrs. Boonchuy, "No need to worry about disguises for this outing. The only people we are meeting are the Nocedas."

"We're here," said Bee as he turned a corner. Anne looked up and let out a small gasp as she realized they had arrived at a cemetery.

"Mom… why are we here?" asked Anne.

"Did Luz never tell you what happened to her father?" asked Oum.

As she said that, Anne recalled what Luz had said back in the palace when it was revealed that Marcy had intentionally stranded them in Amphibia

"Marcy….there's something I haven't told any of you, because it's painful to talk about, but now given what you just said I think you need to know." Luz looked hard into Marcy's eyes still holding onto her hands.

"My dad died when I was young," said Luz somberly, her eyes tearing up, "when that happened my mom and I were devastated, but part of what helped us move on was knowing that we had each other."

"Yes, she did," replied Anne, "I guess I just… it happened at a very weird time, so I kind of forgot it."

As Anne said that, she suddenly realized the answer to why they were there, a pit forming in her stomach. She wasn't quite sure how to handle herself in these kinds of situations and tried to think of what she would say to Luz when she saw her. The car suddenly came to a stop. Bee pointed off in the distance and Anne saw Luz and her mother standing at a grave, her heart sinking at the sight. Both Luz and her mother were also dressed in formal wear, her mother wearing a full-length black dress and Luz also wearing a dress and formal shoes.

"This place is very special to humans. It's where we remember the dead," said Oum, looking back at both the Plantars, "Please behave yourselves here. No shouting, loud noises, or roughhousing. Understand?"

Sprig and Polly nodded their heads. The group got out of the car and Bee went around to the trunk where he got out three small bouquets of flowers, handing them to Sprig, Anne, and Polly. Anne noticed that they had parked close behind Camila's car. The Boonchuys stood by their car as they watched Luz and her mother at the grave. No one said anything. After what seemed like forever, the two turned and walked back toward their car. It didn't take long for Luz to notice Anne and her family, and she was caught off guard but smiled as she made her way over to her. As Luz got closer, Anne could see that she had been recently crying. Her eyes were red and there were streaks of tears running down her cheeks, though she was at least now smiling.

"Hey," said Luz to Anne, wiping her face and trying to look more presentable, "This is a surprise."

"I invited them, mija," said Camila, "I know we've been doing this on our own for a few years, but I thought maybe this year, we could use some company. Plus, after I heard about Sprig and Polly's parents, I thought it might be nice for them to come too."

Sprig and Polly smiled at Camila. Anne looked over at Luz.

"I remember you told me about your father," said Anne softly, "I honestly kind of forgot, because so much else was happening at the time, I'm sorry. I don't even know the full story of what happened."

"There isn't really much more to tell, my dad was sick and he died," began Luz, she paused before adding, "I guess we did almost end up moving before that happened.

"Really?" said Mrs. Boonchuy, jumping in.

"Yes," began Camila, "I was looking for ways to help Manny and there was a clinic in Connecticut that said they were better equipped to treat him. I thought that it would be best if the three of us moved there. We were pretty far along actually, I had already looked at a house out there."

"Oh, I remember you saying that the reason we were moving was because the house was 'prettier' than our current one," said Luz slyly.

"It was!" countered Camila.

"Mom, I saw the pictures you showed me. Heck, I think I still have some of them on my phone," replied Luz, taking out her phone and scrolling through the pictures.

"Ah-ha, here we are," said Luz, bringing out her phone and showing the pictures to Anne and her parents to try and prove her point.

Anne looked at the house in the picture, the house seemed a little small, but it looked nice enough. Though as Luz scrolled to the interior pictures, Anne could see that the house, while good, was hardly what she would call pretty. The interior had clearly seen better days and it would no doubt take some work to fix it up.

Camila let out a sigh, "Okay, maybe I exaggerated the house just a little bit. You were still young, Luz. I didn't want to tell you the real reason we were moving. And hey, since we didn't in the end, I guess it's all moot."

"What happened?" asked Bee, "Why didn't you move?"

Luz and her mother looked at each other before Camila replied, "It was actually Manny's idea. I was all set to make an offer on the house in Gravesfield, start packing up boxes, and call a moving company. But at the last second, he changed his mind."

"Dad thought it would be better for us to stay in LA," Luz trailed off for a bit before adding, "He said that even if something happened to him, it wasn't fair for us to have uprooted our lives just for him. He didn't want to make things hard on us."

"Manny and I talked and argued about it for a few days," said Camila, "I was so certain that this clinic in Gravesfield could help cure him. I told him we needed to move there so that he could still have a chance, but I think at that point, he had already accepted he was going to die. So that's why he changed his mind about us moving. But there is a part of me that regrets that choice. In the back of my mind, I always wondered if that was the right choice. Would he still be here if I had insisted we move?" Camila began tearing up as she said that. Luz came over to her and hugged her.

"You never can know the future," said Bee in a calm reassuring voice, "We make choices based on the things we know, not the things we wish we knew. Our choices are made in the moment and we can't always predict the long-term consequences. Don't beat yourself up. You had no way of knowing."

Luz and Camila looked at Bee, feeling better hearing him say that.

"Your husband was looking out for his family," said Oum, coming up to Camila and putting her arm on her, "He wanted you to not have to adjust to living in a new city just for him."

"Hey uh… I'm sorry if this sounds selfish, but I'm glad you didn't move," said Anne to Luz, "Otherwise, I wouldn't have met you."

Luz smiled at Anne and then said, "Before I met you, Sasha, and Marcy, I never really had friends of my own. And while we certainly have gone through some rough patches, I think… all things considered, I'm also glad I didn't move, and that I got to meet you, Anne. Who knows what would have happened if I did move?"

"When Manny was alive every year for my birthday, he would give me flowers," began Camila somberly, "After he passed, Luz and I started a new tradition where we would pick flowers for each other, place them on his grave, then spend the day together. I thought this year, we could add to that tradition." Camila looked tenderly at Sprig, Polly, and Anne as she said this.

"Thank you, Mrs. Noceda," said Sprig, "So, uh, what do we do here?"

"Take the flowers we gave you and put them on the grave," said Bee gently, "When you do think about the person who's gone and think about what they meant to you."

"But we don't really know Luz's father," said Polly.

"That's okay," said Camila, "You can think of your own parents if you want instead."

Anne and the Plantars looked at each other and then back at Luz.

"That's fine," said Luz. She turned to look back at the grave she and her mother had just been at and motioned for the group to follow. After a few minutes, they arrived, and Anne looked at the gravestone and felt her heart sink. She came up next to Luz who stood there without saying anything.

"Hey, Dad," she finally said after a long silence, "There's someone I want you to meet."

Luz reached out her hand and Anne took it, holding her hand tighter than she ever had before as she stepped forward.

"This is Anne, Anne Boonchuy," said Luz to the gravestone, "she's my… my girlfriend." As she said that line, Luz actually smiled. Anne squeezed her hand to show her support.

"I think you really would have liked her," said Luz to the gravestone, hanging her head, "Anne is amazing, smart, beautiful, she cares so much about people! I bet you'd laugh if you heard the whole story of how we got together. It's actually funny if you think about it."

Luz let out a small laugh as she said that, Anne smiled.

"Hey, now, let's not forget about you," said Anne to Luz, "You're brave, smart, caring, amazing, you must get some of that from your dad."

"Mama said he had a good heart," said Luz, "She said he was the nicest person you would ever meet."

"Hey, uh, Luz…" began Sprig awkwardly, "How old were you when…?"

"I was ten," answered Luz, "It only happened about three years ago, and while I do remember things about Dad, I was also so young, that sometimes it's hard to recall them."

Sprig and Polly looked at each other and then back at Luz.

"It's still a bit recent for us," said Sprig, "I think about two years for us, I'm younger than you, so I wanna say I was around eight when… when she and dad died."

"At least, you still sort of remember them a bit," said Polly, her face falling, "I… I honestly don't remember anything about Mom or Dad."

Sprig, Anne, and Luz all looked at Polly. They had never heard her admit that before.

"You know, I think mom had red hair just like me," said Sprig, taking off his hat and running his fingers through his hair, "I also remember her being really nice and wanting to help people, I know that's not much, but…"

"Hop-Pop told me a bit about them too," said Polly, "Said dad was a real frog of the earth who enjoyed rolling up his sleeves and getting dirty. Hop-Pop said he had a knack for planting crops and seemed to have a natural connection to the ground. I wish I could remember what he looked like."

The group stayed silent, not really sure what to say in response to that. Finally, Luz spoke.

"It's weird, isn't it? Sprig told me about how he's tried to remember his mom, but because he was so young when she died it's hard. I have the same issue with my dad, I remember a few things about him, but I was only ten so I didn't really know him that well. Polly was so young, she barely remembers anything."

"Luz… do you ever fear you'll… forget your father?" asked Polly seriously. Luz thought long and hard about that question before responding.

"I may forget certain things about him," said Luz, "but I know that I won't ever forget him completely. Before he passed, he gave me my very first Azura book. He even used to read it to me at night before I fell asleep…"

Luz trailed off as tears started flowing from her eyes. She cried for a few seconds, Anne putting her arm around her but then managed to compose herself.

"I'll always have that memory of him, and I know I'll never forget that. Mama says that the people we love, if we continue to remember them, then they never really are gone. I think that's true both for my dad and for your parents."

Sprig and Polly smiled. As they did, they both walked up to Luz's father's grave and placed the flowers they held on it.

"Hey, do you mind if I have a moment alone with your dad?" asked Anne, "I want to say something if that's okay."

"Sure," said Luz. With that, she motioned for Sprig and Polly to follow her back to the car, Sprig reached up, took hold of Luz's hand, and smiled at her while Polly hopped onto her shoulder, giving her face a hug. Luz squeezed Sprig's hand and brought her other hand up to cradle Polly. As the group walked away, Anne stared at the grave, pausing for a long time before saying,

"Hey, Mr. Noceda… I'm Anne. Well, Luz already introduced me to you. I… uh, I wish I had gotten the chance to meet you. I'd like to think that maybe you'd disapprove of me at first, but then I'd show you why I was worthy to date your amazing daughter. Then we'd laugh and get along just fine!"

Anne let out a small chuckle.

"Luz is very special to me and I uh… I just want to let you know I promise to look after her. I know Luz is strong and capable of taking care of herself, but for those moments when it becomes too much, I'll be there for her. I promise both her and you…"

Anne laid her flower on the grave, giving one more look to it before turning around and heading back.

---

New World, Old Family

The two witches in the cell stood up as the door was opened. The frobots roughly pushed Raine into the cell, who collapsed as they entered. They then closed the door behind them.

"Are you alright?" asked the black-haired witch, coming up to Raine and trying to help them up.

"No, not really," replied Raine, grasping at their heart, "They took a lot out of me this time."

"Here, sit down," said the red-haired witch as she helped guide Raine over to the wall. Raine sat down, still clutching at their heart. They tried to make a spell circle, but it broke apart almost as soon as it formed.

"Still too weak to do magic," said Raine in frustration, "Either of you any better?"

"No," said the male witch, "Believe me, I tried, but those newts have realized we need bile to do magic. They've been doing a good job at keeping us drained so we can't do any."

"Here, let me see if I can help you," said the red-haired witch. She made a small spell circle that flashed for a second but still held, then brought it over to Raine's heart in an attempt to heal them. The circle pulsed and flashed for a few seconds indicating it was working, but then broke apart. The female witch let out a growl of frustration.

"Damnit!" she cursed, "Looks like I had a little left In me, but not enough. It takes so long for our bodies to make more."

"That will make escaping from this place difficult," said the male witch.

"Of course, that's not the only problem we have," said Raine emphatically, "We're also stuck in a floating castle, so even if we got out of our cell, we'd still have to deal with getting off the castle."

"It's like we're trapped in two prisons," said the female witch.

"I'm sure that's the point," said the male witch.

"There are also these cursed collars they have on us," said the female witch, tugging at her own.

"Yeah, it's going to be hard to escape if they can just turn these on and stop us," agreed the male witch.

"There may be one piece of good news," said Raine, the other witches looking at them.

"That young witch who was captured with us, I'm pretty sure that's Amity Blight. I know her father, and if his daughter is missing, he'll do whatever it takes to find her," said Raine hopefully.

At the mention of Amity Blight, the male witch hung his head.

"Darling, is everything alright?" asked his wife.

The male witch took a long pause before replying, "To get me to comply with them, the newts threatened to hurt Amity. I… I thought maybe they were bluffing, and at the time, I thought I would enjoy seeing her be hurt. So I let them shock her for a bit, and as soon as I saw her in pain, I instantly regretted it."

His wife let out a gasp, "Why would you do that?"

"We're all under a bit of stress here," said Raine, trying to defend the man, "I'm sure your head wasn't in the right place."

"Her parents tried to force your father to sell them his farm," said the male witch.

The wife looked at him for a few seconds before saying, "You know that was her parents, not her. She had nothing to do with that. You can't punish the child for the sins of the father."

"You hold no resentment over what they did?" asked the husband.

"Of course I do!" said the wife in a huff, "I'm fairly certain they destroyed property and unleashed some pests and plagues on my father's farm to try and force him to sell. They did eventually stop, but again, that was the parents, though I think it was mostly Odalia, not Amity."

"They'll raise her to be just like them, I know it," said the husband.

"What did they want that farm for?" asked Raine.

"They didn't even want it as a farm. They just wanted to knock it down and build another factory," said the female witch.

"Which is stupid, the farm sits on the most fertile area of the titan," began the male witch, he took a pause before adding, "The thighs."

His wife did let out a small chuckle at that, "You never get tired of making that innuendo, do you?"

"Not every area on the titan is suitable for growing crops," said the male witch with a flourish, "And there's no place better than the inner things of the titan. I wonder why that area is so… fertile."

Raine and the wife both laughed at that.

"Well, we might be trapped in an unfamiliar world, but thank you for making me laugh," said Raine.

"Dear… the kids… Do you think they're okay?" asked the wife.

"They should be fine," answered the male witch, "We left them with your father before we set out. Thank Titan they weren't with us when we got captured."

"You have kids?" asked Raine, intrigued. The two witches turned toward them.

"Yes, a boy and a girl. They're twins, actually," said the female witch with a smile, "They just started at Hexside. They must be so worried about us."

"When we get back, we'll have quite a story to tell them for sure," said the male witch.

"Our son is in the Plant track," said the wife, "He takes after my father, who is also in the Plant Coven, I hear he's doing quite well in it. He even told us the kids had come up with a cool nickname for him."

"Our daughter is in the healing track," said the husband, "She's always had a sweet disposition and a desire to help people."

"What were you doing before you got captured?" asked Raine.

"I'm in the construction coven," said the male witch, revealing his brand, "I was doing some experiments to try and test some new soil compositions. I wanted to see if we could find the best soil for growing crops.

"I'm in the healing coven," said the female witch, "I was helping my husband by trying to use healing techniques to cure damaged or polluted soil. The Blights have caused a lot of environmental damage to the area around their factory. We were trying to combine our magic to help the soil."

"That's when that thing got us," said the male witch. He turned to Raine, "How about you?"

"I was out walking in the forest," said Raine, "Humming a bit to myself, trying to think up some new melodies, when suddenly, I was attacked. I managed to cut off its leg, but it still got me. I tried to escape when they first brought me to the basement, but it didn't work. Still, I have at least one more trick up my sleeve."

Raine made sure the three were alone before they made a spell circle and summoned their violin. The other two witches let out a small gasp.

"Shhh," said Raine, "It doesn't take much magic to summon my instrument, and I've made sure not to let those metal abominations nor the newts see I can do this."

"Then there is hope yet that we can escape!" said the male excitedly.

"Do you need bile to play?" asked the female witch.

"To play, no," clarified Raine, "But for my music to have any sort of magical effect, yes, I need bile, and I don't have enough right now to guarantee anything. Those metal abominations don't have ears, but I think they can still be affected by my music."

"They may be tough," began the male witch, "but I think a few rocks to the chest will still fell them all the same."

"But we don't have enough bile to fight for a long period of time," protested the female witch

"Which is why we need to be smart about this," said Raine emphatically, "The fact of the matter is, we will likely only get ONE chance to make a clean escape. We need to be able to: get out of this cell, find and rescue Amity in the basement, remove these collars, and make it off this flying castle SAFELY! If we can't do all of those, then our escape will likely fail, and I'd hate to think what sort of punishment those newts would have in store for us then."

"They may just move on from harvesting to dissecting us," said the male witch in horror.

"Exactly," said his wife, "So while we have some time together, let's think carefully of the best way we can pull this off."

The three took a pause as they began to think of ways they could escape until Raine suddenly realized something.

"I'm so sorry," they began, "I know we've hardly all been together, what with the extractions and electrocutions, I don't think we were ever properly introduced. I'm Raine, by the way, Raine Whispers."

Raine offered their hand to each of the witches, who in turn shook it. The male and female witches looked back at them before each saying.

"I'm Vincent, Vincent Farmer," said the male black-haired witch.

"Alyssa, Alyssa Farmer," said the red-haired female witch.